By: John Cusick Week three is over and we had many Division 2 teams open up their cross country season. We are finally seeing some programs establish clearer varsity lineups while others are showing off their depth. Let’s take a tour around the country and see where some of these teams stand. *** UMass Dartmouth Invite We’ll begin in Massachusetts where we saw Southern New Hampshire and American International go head-to-head for 8000 meters. The two teams are very familiar with each other as they both compete in the Northeast-10 Conference. In this matchup, we saw SNHU come out on top thanks to a 4-5-7 finish from their top three. Cedric Jocelyn was the lead man for the Penman’s with Micah Hewitson close behind in 5th place. Michael Moreno was the third scorer in 7th. All three were within seven seconds of each other. Ethan Matthews (23rd) and Alex Boedeker (35th) were the fourth and fifth scorers for SNHU which was enough to capture the team title. The Yellow Jackets finished 3rd as a team and were led by Patric Clark who finished 6th overall. Sam Mehretu was next in 11th place. Charlie Joslin-Allen (24th), Benoit Campion (27th) and Ryan LaFrance (40th) were the final three scorers. It’s worth noting that Leakey Kipkosgei didn’t run for American this weekend. Had he run, I’m sure the 34 point differential between these two teams would have been smaller. Franklin Pierce, another NE-10 participant, was also a part of this meet. They had scorers at 12-15-22 to piece together a respectable top three. However, scorers four and five were back in 56th and 78th which was still good enough for 4th place at the meet. Southern Stampede Let’s move to Missouri where we saw a battle between two top 20 runners in Jacob Klemz and Mason Phillips. After the weekend, we may have a new athlete who is capable of contending for the national title. The Division 1 school Tulsa took home the team title, but the meet wasn’t about them as we looked through the results. Washburn’s Jacob Klemz claimed the individual title over Missouri Southern’s Gidieon Kimutai. Klemz edge Kimutai by two seconds over 8000 meters of racing. While Washburn finished 8th overall, it was Missouri Southern who stole the show. After Kimutai was Cody Berry in 12th place, Nickson Kiptoo in 20th, Josh Webb in 24th, and Mike Shanahan in 27th. Missouri Southern finished 2nd as a team and were only 18 points behind an established Tulsa team. The 3rd place team was Sioux Falls. They’re usually led by Mason Phillips (who was coming off a very successful opening meet a few weeks ago), but this weekend it was Steven Brown who led the way in 5th overall. Phillips was next finisher in 8th place while Zach Lundberg was 17th. Although the gap between three and four was somewhat big, the fourth and fifth scorers finished 36th and 37th, solidifying the 3rd place team spot. Other teams of note at this meet were Nebraska-Kearney in 4th and West Texas A&M in 5th place. MSU Spartan Invite Let’s jump over to Michigan where we saw Grand Valley State finally run their A squad at the MSU Spartan Invitational. Zach Panning, our number one ranked runner, finally made his season debut and won the race in a time of 24:45. Teammate Enael Woldemichael (TSR #4) was just a second behind in 24:46 for runner-up. We knew that this Laker duo was going to be good, we just weren’t entirely sure that they would be this dominant. Their 3-4-5 runners also had good races and helped capture a 3rd place team finish. Josh Steible finished 18th, Tanner Chada was 23rd, and Joe Renner was 36th. Mountaineer Open The last meet we want to talk about is the Mountaineer Open in Colorado. Although Western State won the team title in convincing fashion behind Taylor Stack, Ross Husch and Charlie Sweeney’s top ten finishes, it was Marcelo Laguera who stole the show for CSU-Pueblo. Laguera won the individual race with a time of 25:58 and was 18 seconds ahead of Stack. Laguera’s teammate, Derrick Williams, was 5th overall and aided the Thunderwolves in a runner-up team finish. With the transfer of Paul Roberts, CSU-Pueblo will be looking for someone else to come up strong in the 3-4-5 range. Alec Choury was 16th, Cole Munoz was 17th, and Dylan Day was 27th to round out the scoring. *** The weekend was full of captivating races where we finally saw some of the best teams in the country debut. We saw some individuals show their fitness and give us something to look forward to when it comes to Conferences, Regionals, and Nationals. It should only get better from this point on in the coming weeks, especially with some of the biggest meets of the year still to come.

The Stride Report was first launched in March of 2017. Back then, the site design was sloppy. The articles lacked proper sentence structure. We only posted new content once every three days. And our writers? There was only one (me). Now, the story is a bit different. We have six different contributors and have more on the way. We've redesigned our pages, produced more articles, added new site features, and ensured that TSR was going to be valuable even without a recent post. However, there was (and still is) a grand vision in mind for this site. We want to make this as big and as legitimate as possible while still producing high-quality content. I don't think TSR would have the support it does today without that being our main focus. Of course, in order to achieve those goals, we can't be complacent. We have to try new things, implement new features, expand our focus, and simply work harder. No one ever said that this would be easy... It's been almost 18 months since The Stride Report began, and we've been able to gather all of your criticism and praise during that time. However, the most clear and obvious issue is our lack of coverage for women in the sport. The criticism is understandable. It's probably been frustrating if you're the other 50% of the distance runners around the country. Women have worked so hard to gain respect and attention within the running community. They are just as successful as the men. That is why today, we are officially beginning our expansion into women's coverage of collegiate distance running. It's a phase in our site life cycle that we have been promising to our readers for over a year now. Although we are making an effort to expand our coverage, we also need something from our audience: Patience. Right now, The Stride Report is completely built and centered around men's distance running. Whether it's the results bar, the news box, our DATA page, KOLAS page, RANKINGS page, or whatever else you can think of, it will take time to fully integrate women's coverage into the identity of our site. In other words, it's not going to happen overnight. Additionally, we need our readers to understand that our knowledge of women's distance running in the NCAA may not be as strong as the men (at least not right now). That's simply because we've been focused on the men for an incredibly long period of time. We haven't had the time to research women's results like we have for the men (until now). Regardless of these bumps in the road, we're taking another step forward and we couldn't be more pumped about it. So what does mean for our men's coverage? Will there be any less content on the men than there was before? In short, no. We plan on keeping most, if not all, of our current writers on track with what they were originally assigned to do. They have been creating awesome content and we're not trying to change a good thing. That doesn't mean they won't write for anything on women, but you shouldn't expect to see a notable or significant drop in how many articles we are producing for the men (at least, that's not our intention). Instead, we are excited to announce that Sam Ivanecky will be joining the TSR crew and beginning our coverage on the women's side! Sam will collaborate with myself and the rest of our team to bring you rankings, previews, in-depth discussions, and so much more. HOWEVER, publishing new articles will only get easier if we have your help. If you're curious about writing and want to get involved in our coverage of NCAA women's distance running, we implore you to send us an email and express your interest. We believe that moving into the women's side could generate an entire new reader segment that was never there before. It could lead to massive growth and get us closer to our goal of obtaining a sponsor / sponsors. Stay tuned to the site this week as we begin to bring you NCAA women's content! We've got some great things on deck, especially with a big weekend of competition ahead of us. As always, never hesitate to send us an email. We love talking with our readers. Your criticism, questions, ideas, and general comments are always welcomed. Until then, keep reading and spread the word! The more often you tell your family, friends, and teammates about us, the faster we can grow and the more content we can produce. From myself and the rest of the TSR staff, we can't thank you enough for your support. Sincerely, Garrett Zatlin TSR Admin

KEY (Unranked): Was not ranked the week before. (#/#): First number indicates the change in a runner's ranking from week prior Second number indicates where the runner was ranked last week 50. James Sugira, Freshman, Eastern Kentucky (0 / 50) 49. Cooper Teare, Sophomore, Oregon (0 / 49) The Oregon ace toed the line for his second race of the season, although he was once again running unattached. Teare finished 2nd overall to Portland's Reuben Kiprono who ran away from the field to take the win. Oregon was certainly racing hard, but the interview with Teare after the race made it seem like they were maybe holding back just a bit. The good news is that Teare has indicated that he will be wearing an Oregon singlet for his next meet, putting to rest any rumors that he'll be redshirting the 2018 season. 48. Tanner Anderson, Senior, Washington (0 / 48) The new Washington low-stick finished 6th at the Battle of Beantown in his season debut. It was a solid performance and a nice way to start his season. Some fans may be a bit underwhelmed by a finish outside of the top five, but 6th place is tied for the second best finish Anderson has ever had during his cross country career. No change in his ranking, but an overall decent performance. There is still a lot of work to do. 47. Noah Affolder, Sophomore, Syracuse (Unranked) The first true test of Affolder's sophomore year came at the Battle of Beantown and the young star did not disappoint. He finished 5th overall, taking down a handful of top talent from around the country. It was absolutely crucial for Affolder to be an impact second scorer for his team and so far he's held up his end of the bargain. 46. Morgan Beadlescomb, Junior, Michigan State (0 / 46) 45. Farah Karimabdul, Junior, Ole Miss (Unranked) The first breakout runner of the year is a transfer from Morehead State. We knew Ole Miss would find and develop new talent, but we weren't sure Karimabdul was going to progress like he did. His 4th place finish at Beantown makes him an extremely valuable low-stick and shows us that he has great potential this season. He could be a problem for other teams in the SEC and South region. 44. Casey Comber, Rs. Junior, Villanova (+1 / 45) 43. Garrett Reynolds, Junior, UCLA (0 / 43) 42. Jaret Carpenter, Junior, Purdue (0 / 42) 41. Aaron Templeton, Rs. Senior, Furman (0 / 41) 40. Luis Grijalva, Sophomore, Northern Arizona (0 / 40) 39. Eduardo Herrera, Sophomore, Colorado (0 / 39) 38. Emmanuel Rotich, Tulane, Senior (0 / 38) The Tulane senior cruised to an easy win at the Texas A&M Invite. His time of 23:41 is the fastest we've seen from anyone in the nation so far this year. Maybe that's a good sign for what's to come... 37. Miler Haller, Rs. Junior, Boise State (0 / 37) 36. John Dressel, Senior, Colorado (0 / 36) 35. Conner Mantz, Rs. Sophomore, BYU (0 / 35) 34. Clayton Young, Rs. Senior, BYU (0 / 34) 33. Kigen Chemadi, Senior, Middle Tennessee State (0 / 33) 32. Mickey Davey, Senior, Air Force (0 / 32) 31. Peter Seufer, Senior, Virginia Tech (0 / 31) 30. Brent Demarest, Rs. Senior, Virginia (-2 / 28) The 19th place finisher at last year's Cross Country National Championships had a respectable performance at Beantown, placing 7th overall. Still, someone in the top 30 shouldn't lose to three other guys who are 15+ spots behind him in the rankings. That's the only reason for his drop. Regardless, he had a nice race and Virginia should be satisfied with his result. 29. Peter Lomong, Senior, Northern Arizona (+1 / 30) 28. Ben Veatch, Junior, Indiana (+1 / 29) 27. Geordie Beamish, Rs. Senior, Northern Arizona (0 / 27) 26. Nadeel Wildschutt, Sophomore, Coastal Carolina (-1 / 25) 25. Steven Fahy, Senior, Stanford (-1 / 24) 24. Cole Rockhold, Senior, Colorado State (-1 / 23) 23. Nick Hauger, Senior, Portland (-1 / 22) Did not run with team at Dellinger Invite. 22. Connor McMillan, Rs. Senior, BYU (-1 / 21) 21. Oliver Hoare, Junior, Wisconsin (-1 / 20) 20. Edwin Kurgat, Junior, Iowa State (-1 / 19) 19. Andrew Jordan, Junior, Iowa State (-1 / 18) 18. Jonathan Davis, Junior Illinois (-1 / 17) 17. Lawrence Kipkoech, Rs. Senior, Campbell (-4 / 13) Kipkoech held his own with a 3rd place finish in Boston (Beantown). Overall, it was a very solid race and a great start to his season. However, the real story of the meet came down to Tooker and Kemboi, while Kipkoech had to settle for bronze. We may have been a bit too aggressive with his preseason ranking, but he is still a top talent who can challenge almost anyone in the NCAA. 16. Aidan Tooker, Junior, Syracuse (+10 / 26) At first, I thought it was just hype. There was no doubt that Tooker was one of the nation's best, but there had been a lot of pressure on him to perform at the highest level this season. Big expectations aren't always easy to handle, but Tooker didn't care. At Beantown, he pushed Kemboi to the line and was .3 seconds away from earning the upset win. Take note: Tooker is legit. 15. Azaria Kirwa, Senior, Liberty (+1 / 16) 14. Alex Ostberg, Rs. Junior, Stanford (+1 / 15) 13. Robert Brandt, Senior, UCLA (+1 / 14) 12. Jacob Choge, Junior, Middle Tennessee State (0 / 12) 11. Joe Klecker, Rs. Junior, Colorado (0 / 11) 10. Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse, Junior, Portland (0 / 10) Did not run with team at Dellinger Invite. 9. Alfred Chelanga, Senior, Alabama (0 / 9) 8. Amon Kemboi, Sophomore, Campbell (0 / 8) After a phenomenal spring track season, we opted to give Amon Kemboi a top 10 ranking. So far, he hasn't disappointed. He soundly defeated a very talented field at Beantown and edged out Tooker for the win. In my eyes, Kemboi was the favorite to win the Battle in Beantown, so this doesn't deserve a ranking improvement quite yet. However, we'll remember this win when the big meets begin to shake up our rankings. 7. Rory Linkletter, Rs. Senior, BYU (0 / 7) 6. Vincent Kirpop, Senior, Alabama (0 / 6) 5. Gilbert Kigen, Senior, Alabama (0 / 5) 4. Morgan McDonald, Rs. Senior, Wisconsin (0 / 4) 3. Grant Fisher, Senior, Stanford (0 / 3) 2. Tyler Day, Junior, Northern Arizona (0 / 2) 1. Matthew Baxter, Senior, Northern Arizona (0 / 1) ADDED Farah Karimabdul (Ole Miss) Noah Affolder (Syracuse) DROPPED Euan Makepeace (Butler) Andrew Marston (Villanova) JUST MISS (in no order) Dan Curts (Iowa State) Thomas Pollard (Iowa State) Lachlan Cook (Virginia) Yusuke Uchikoshi (Boise State) Ryan Forsyth (Colorado) Conor Lundy (Princeton) Gilbert Boit (Arkansas) Addison DeHaven (Boise State) Erik Rotich (Eastern Kentucky) Olin Hacker (Wisconsin) Kevin James (Syracuse) Joe Dragon (Syracuse) Reuben Kiprono (Portland) Waleed Suliman (Ole Miss) WHO TO WATCH (in no order) Tom Nobles (Charlotte) Mihret Coulter (Charlotte) Jesse Reiser (Illinois) Thomas Ratcliffe (Stanford) Colin Abert (Penn State) Iliass Aouani (Syracuse) Sam Worley (Texas) Chandler Tiegen (Washington State) Paul Hogan (UMass Lowell) Curt Eckstein (Purdue) Clayson Shumway (BYU) Caleb Pottorff (Florida State) Emmanuel Cheboson (Louisville) Abraham Chirchir (UT-Rio Grande Valley) Kevin Lynch (Utah Valley) Jackson Metsler (Oregon) SURPRISE OF THE WEEK Farah Karimabdul (Ole Miss) There was so much attention on other Ole Miss recruits like Dalton Hengst, Michael Coccia, and Mario Garcia Romo. Yet, no one was giving the transfer from Morehead State any attention. That changed on Friday after Karimabdul unleashed a 4th place finish at Beantown. RUNNER OF THE WEEK Aidan Tooker (Syracuse) Yes, Amon Kemboi got the win, but Tooker's runner-up finish means just as much (if not more) in the grand scheme of things. He established himself as an elite low-stick and nearly pulled off a massive upset. With Knight now gone, the Orange needed another ace and Tooker has assumed that role without a problem. NOTES Makepeace drops from our rankings simply because we haven't seen him race yet. Until he does, it's too crowded for him to stay in the 40 to 50 range. Marston had an underwhelming 9th place finish in his season opener last week. We don't think that race mean't a whole lot for him, but we do have to make room for others in the rankings until he shows us the true extent of his talent. We may see guys like Kevin James and Joe Dragon as reliable supporting scorers, but they could be more than just that. Their 8th and 9th place finishes at Beantown were very encouraging and something to be excited about. Who knows? Maybe one of these guys sneaks into our Top 50 at one point this season... The sophomore duo from Washington (Proctor and Hull) had a great day, finishing 11th and 12th overall. It's nothing flashy, but it's a solid start to their season. Their youth gives them a lot of room to improve. Reuben Kiprono dominated the Bill Dellinger Invite field, winning by 15 seconds. We're not entirely sure what Oregon's race plan was, but the fact of the matter is that Kiprono has elevated his fitness to an entirely new level. He clearly put in the work this summer and that may result in him becoming a top five scorer for the Pilots this fall. Abraham Chirchir, a freshman from UT-Rio Grande Valley, threw down a 23:51 in a head-to-head battle with Emmanuel Rotich at the Texas A&M Invite (settling for 2nd). We still need to see more from him, but this could be a young rising star that no one is talking about.